Instant Imprints owner Linda Boyd tries to find a way around the intersection of McCaslin Boulevard and Dillon Road just about every time she’s out and about, running deliveries to her print customers.

“It takes forever,” Boyd said of the wait times required to get from her store in the Colony Square Shopping Center to just about anywhere else in town. “I drive through Lowe’s (parking lot) because I don’t want to go through that intersection.”

The intersection, which sits just 100 yards or so north of the interchange with U.S. 36, is one of Louisville’s busiest, with an average of 42,700 vehicles making their way through the crossing each day. McCaslin Boulevard blows up to nine lanes at the traffic signal, while Dillon Road totals six lanes at the same spot.

“Not only does it take local traffic, it takes regional traffic as well,” said David Thompson, the city’s senior civil engineer. “As we look into the future and traffic numbers grow on McCaslin and Dillon, I think making this intersection more efficient will be beneficial to all users.”

And that’s what Louisville aims to do.

Armed with $720,000 in federal money passed through the Colorado Department of Transportation – in addition to $180,000 from its own coffers – the city hopes to add a dedicated westbound through lane on Dillon Road, while adding space for bike lanes on the east-west route.

Louisville held a lightly attended open house on the proposed project Wednesday, Nov. 30. The City Council will decide whether to approve it Dec. 20. Construction would begin next summer and last two to three months, Thompson said.

The primary goal of the project, Thompson said, is to eliminate the split-phase signal timing that now plagues the intersection. Split-phase signal timing means that westbound and eastbound traffic on Dillon Road are each assigned a green light in sequence rather than at the same time, increasing wait times for everyone.

“The split phase makes the traffic signal less efficient,” he said. “You have to give dedicated time to both sides.”

By adding a through-only lane on westbound Dillon – where a left-turn lane now doubles as a through lane – traffic from both sides can flow in each direction at the same time, Thompson said.

Scott Reichenberg, who belongs to a partnership that owns land at the southeast corner of the intersection, has missed a light cycle on more than one occasion while stacked up in traffic on westbound Dillon Road.

“As someone who drives this intersection every day, this is a welcome intersection upgrade,” he said.

And Reichenberg said it would help businesses at all four corners – such as the Old Santa Fe Mexican Grille, Tao Asian Fusion & Sushi Bar, Chili’s and the shops at Colony Square Shopping Center – if traffic is made to flow more smoothly.

“It’s going to assist people in feeling comfortable using the intersection,” he said.

The City Council will need to choose between two alternatives at its Dec. 20 meeting – one with standard right-turn-lane crosswalks and one with raised right-turn-lane crosswalks.

Thompson said the advantage of raised crosswalks is that they slow vehicles in the same way speed bumps do, and they give pedestrians a higher and more visible profile. But the alternative featuring raised crosswalks adds another $66,000 to the cost of the project.

The city will have to come up with an additional $300,000 to $365,000 to fund the project beyond the money it has already secured or committed, depending on which option it chooses.